I am here to look for suggestions and to provide a write-up and pictures of a buildup of my buddies Integra coupe, which I am performing for him while he is away in Iraq so that he may have something to look at if he ever has the chance AND also to get the helping hand from a community of Integra enthusiasts. Not being an Acura owner (I drive a Subaru) it will help out greatly if I could get suggestions for a wise way to go about this for my friend, who has provided me with a pretty decent budget, not to exceed $3,000, but may go as high as $5,000 depending on circumstance. Our plan so far is as follows:

- Replace and/or repair dented/damaged passenger fender and rear bumper from a mild accident
- New set of wheels
- A full header back exhaust and intake system
- A set of lowering springs
- If funds permit: VTEC head swap, further suspension mods and brake mods.

He has already settled on purchasing a set of 17" wheels for a set of Toyo Proxes 4 tires that he has, so I will address other areas that could use some expertise, as I don't have much time to spend on the computer to conduct research. Overall, he wants a mildly modified look; nothing too low, no Altezza lights, etc. so here are my ideas:

- He would like a mild drop, just enough to get rid of the fender gap. I am leaning toward H&R sports springs from what little I have searched, they seem to fit the bill. Car has pretty low mileage (under 30,000) so the struts should be in decent shape. Would I need a camber kit for these springs?
- He wants a cold air intake, I don't know what to get here. I like the Comptech Ice Box, but was looking at the AEM as well.
- He wants an exhaust that has an angled exit, N1 style, as well as a titanium tip. I have found the Tanabe Ultra Medallion, are there others?
- Also wants headers, am leaning toward DC Sports 4-1 header, people seem to like those most for their power gains.
- Also need to source a rear bumper, looked on eBay and found nothing, found nothing on the net either. I will call the dealer but I dont like price gouging they usually do!

That is it thus far, I will order the wheels tonight since that is decided on, and I will get pics of the car once it is in my posession, before its trip to Dent Wizard to see if they can fix the dent in the fender, as well as taking out any other dings the car may have. I really appreciate help with making the best decisions possible for him, and I will try to check this thread atleast once a day, but school demands more from me! Thanks all for your help that you can provide.

 

this guy's out fighting in iraq? i wish i had spare parts laying around..i'd donate them to his project

anyone who has just got parts sitting around, or stuff they've been trying to sell should donate...i know i'd love it if i came home from a year of fighting and some people who appreciated it donated some things...

 

For the bumper, you can try to find it on these sites:

http://www.acurapartspro.com
http://www.acuraautomotiveparts.org
http://www.acuraparts247.com

All 3 of these places have reasonable prices on OEM parts.

I think the H&R sports would be fine, it's a mild drop and should be fine with 17s without needing to roll fenders. You could probably do without a camber kit since the drop isn't too severe. You should get a 4 wheel alignment and get the toe set to spec as to not eat tires. Other spring choices would be Neuspeed Sport or Eibach Sportline or Prokit.

He should be fine with stock shocks for now, but it may be better if you can find some used Koni Yellow (Sport) shocks or KYB AGXs. The Konis can be sent back and revalved, and they also have movable perches to raise or lower the car slightly. The ability to customize is always good. New Konis should cost around $500 for a set of four.

As for the header and exhaust, there are many combinations. If he wants an N-1 style, the Tanabe one you mentioned or the Apex N-1 are good choices for a reasonable price. A DC 4-1 JDM header is good for the money, but you will need a 2.5 inch flange carsound/high flo cat made to connect it with the exhaust piping. The USDM one will bolt directly to the cat without a problem, but has a smaller collector than the JDM, resulting in fewer hp/tq gains.

Intake - if I had to do it all over (i have an AEM CAI with bypass), I would just get any intake piping (ebay, etc) and put a K&N filter on the end. You won't have to worry about hydrolock and you will get good throttle response, and save money.

If you want to do more with suspension (strut bars, tie bars, lca, camber) or engine work (VTEC head, etc) than you should contact Wil at Exospeed.com (ExospeedAMCrx). He is very knowledgeable and should be able to give you a good idea of what you could achieve with the money available.

Good luck, and it's great that you are doing all of this for your friend!

 

DAY 2

I ordered wheels, lug nuts, and springs today. The specifics:
Wheels: 17x7 Enkei RS7 in anthracite, 42mm offset (I think these will look great on the car, they weigh approx. 18 lbs)
Lugs: Gorilla Tuner Lugs, adonized black
Springs: H&R Sport springs
Approximate total thus far: $830.00

Got a good deal on the wheels, had them price-matched to another websites advertised price saving about $60.00. Decided to order lugs instead of just buying whatever Discount Tire sends with the wheels, I was not too happy with the lugs I got with a prior set of wheels from them. Got in touch with my buddies mother, scheduled to pick up his car from her on Saturday, I should be able to post pics then. Hopefully I will be hooking up with the guys at Titan Motorsports here in Orlando for the spring install, considering I do not have time to do it myself (unless some locals want to make a few bucks...) They are a great group of people, I have bought plenty of things from them. Tomorrow I plan to call a few local junkyards for the bumper, hopefully I can find something considering the cheapest I found one for new was close to $300!

That's all for now, still looking at intakes (either AEM or Comptech) and looking for exhausts with titanium tip/canisters, any suggestions are welcome! Lastly, a pic of the wheels for those who have not seen them

 

thats great what your doing for your buddy, sounds like he'll have a nice car to return to keep us updated

 

nice those very nice

 

man, if i had spare stuff id send it over.

and good luck with the project.

 

get him a type r lip, oem sides and oem back lips if u can

 

Get the comptech intake over the AEM way better gains and just better overall design.
Mike

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by diM` &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">get him a type r lip, oem sides and oem back lips if u can </TD></TR></TABLE>

Also very good idea I would also get some koni yellows to go with those H&R springs for a really nice ride, and Comptech Comptech Comptech
Mike

 

look into the k&n fipk gen2 kit. im currently running it on my gsr and am very happy with it. i was previously using an aem cold air setup but sold that to buy an icebox but lately they are on backorder.......

anyways, it has a nice heatshield setup that works well....... after a long ride you can put your hand on either side of the shield and feel the diff in temps...........

header wise, comptech tig baby!

suspension wise, ground control coilovers and koni yellows...... classic combo

also check out what kteller8 (ht name) has to offer for exhaust needs. you could get a bolt up pipe kit and use a universal n1 style muffler and prolly save some money........

 

Heres a pic of the k&n setup........

 

Thanks for all of the replies and input/suggestions guys, they are much appreciated. I will look into the intakes that you suggested and I decided to get the DC Sports JDM 4-1 header since the price on it was great. Also getting a test pipe or a hi-flow cat for the section between it and the catback, just haven't decided which to go with yet. I will pick up the car tomorrow morning from his mother, so by tomorrow afternoon at latest I will have pics to post. I am still on the lookout for a bumper and maybe a fender, a couple of calls and a trip to a local u-pull junkyard yielded nothing. For the catback I am looking into the suggestion provided by slooogsr considering that my searching did not turn up more than one or two bolt-on exhausts that had titanium accents and I need to try to save some money somewhere considering I have no idea how much the body work is going to cost.

Also, for a reason unknown to me, a similar thread that I started on TI was deleted. I guess my post was not welcome...

That is where it all stands right now, the wheels, lug nuts, and springs are in transit and should be here early next week, and I MUST find a decent price on the bumper! I'll update more tomorrow with pics.

edubb11

 

good luck with everything.......... keep us updated.......

heres the link to ktellers exhaust setups.......
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=872149

 

Finally, here are the pics:













I am going to order a new rear bumper, considering the paint is spider-webbing and the bumper is in pretty bad shape and the sticker is hiding a hole that was poked in it during a minor accident. You can also see the separation on both sides (and a sneak preview of my WRX ) Going to see if the passenger fender can be fixed by a body shop since it is not in too bad of shape. There are a few other dings that need taken out which I will have fixed as well.
The car is LOUD. To make it even worse, the muffler rattles loud and the exhaust resonates throughout the cabin. That will come off very soon. I did not know he already had an intake on it and he requested that a cold air intake be put on, so I am going to suggest to him the Comptech or AEM.
I also think that the wheels may be the wrong offset, the wheels seem to make a humming when you are driving. I check for any areas that may be rubbing but found none. I will check the offset when I get them off.

That's it for now, if anybody has any more suggestions or questions, please post them! Thanks a lot for all of your support thus far.

 

Got the wheels and springs in today and snapped a few pics for everyone:







Also got an estimate on the body work and paint, I hope to get the car into the shop this week so that in a week or two I can get the wheels and springs installed and an alignment performed. I tried to get the bumper lined up correctly but I can't seem to get the sides to NOT sag, guess I'll just let the body shop take care of it. These guys are very reputable, they did the work on Titan Motorsports' Supra so I am confident that they will do a great job.
I am going to hold off on buying more parts until I can talk to my friend to ask him how much more money he wants me to invest because the body work is going to bring the grand total very close to, if not over, the $2,000 mark. If I do buy anything it will be an exhaust considering the one on the car right now was very sloppily put together.
I was looking at doing the LSVTEC setup for him, but it is looking like that requires a lot of investment money wise, I estimated it to be close to the $2,000 range for a reliable setup, does that sound about right to anybody? For that kind of money he can get the Jackson Racing supercharger, or would the VTEC setup be cheaper? Could anybody give me some rough numbers on a VTEC setup?

That's all for now, I will post more as progress is made. Thanks so much to everybody for your insight and suggestions thus far!

 

Dropped the car off yesterday at Samuel's auto body in Orlando to have some dents taken out and have a new bumper fitted and painted. They were highly recommended to me by Titan Motorsports, which I mentioned in the previous post, so I am sure they will deliver quality work.
Based on recommendations from members here, requests of my buddy, and my limited research I have finally placed an order on intake and exhaust components:

AEM cold air intake (what my friend wanted)
DC Sports JDM 4-1 header (highly recommended by H-T, thanks )
Apex'i N-1 cat-back exhaust (my friend loved the look of it on my WRX and the guys here seem to like it as well, titanium was a little too expensive)

They all should be here around the time that the body shop finishes the car so I will just take the time to install the parts myself, I wouldn't imagine that it would be overly difficult. I will also take the car to Titan for install of the H&R springs.

I am going to order a Carsound catalytic converter and have flanges welded to it for installation between the header and exhaust. Does anybody have an idea of which cat I should order? I understand that the JDM header is a bit longer than the US spec, and it needs a donut gasket at the collector to install it to the cat.

Last question. For the spring install, is there any special alignment settings that I should have the car set up for, or are the stock numbers okay?

Thanks for all of your support on this forum. I will keep this thread updated with pics as they are taken and finally when my friend comes home. I will be picking him up from the airport in his car, so I am sure he will have a look of astonishment on his face!

 

after u get the aem cai on what do u want for the sri?...i could use that..pm me

 

You can get kteller8 or SMSP to custom make a carsound cat for you. They just need your setup, and they know the specs. It's better than buying the cat and taking it to some muffler shop to weld on flanges, unless you know someone good.

 

good luck seems like everything is coming along great.. i would strive for an engine make over so ur friend can pull some ponies and run with the wrx. Good luck, and i hope ur friend comes back safe.

 

I will look into the cat from SMSP and kteller8, thanks for the suggestion. As far as the aftermarket parts that are on the car go, I am sure my friend will more than likely sell them. So, I will keep you updated on that. If anything, I am sure the intake and the wheels (Enkei RF-1 17x7 38mm offset) will be up for sale sooner or later.
I know my friend will be interested in getting something done to the engine so I am keeping my eyes open for any parts that could help. He has expressed his interest in a VTEC head setup.

b18b-se, I don't have access to use pm's yet, so if you want to give me your e-mail address, I'll let you know about the intake. Thanks!

 

If it isn't too late to cancel the order on the DC JDM 4-1, I'll almost certainly have a used one that I can send you in about a month or so. It's ceramic coated, and although the coating isn't in the greatest shape at the moment, it has no dents, and you can't beat the price.

 

Force Induction is the was to go!!! It would be better to just turbo the car since Ls-Vtec conversion is going to run same or more money then a mild turbo set up. and B18b dont really response very well to supercharged.

 

ummm let me ask you this, what exactly do you want for your friend or what does he like? Do you want to go fast and good handling? Or do you want looks? For $3000-$5000 you can get some good stuff, you can got fast or get some nice looks!

$3000-$5000 you can probably find a deal on a nice turbo kit and get a nice supension I'll be a fun car, fast and can handle good, You can get him a good stroker kit maybe super charger?


$3000-$5000 Get him a nice body kit JDM stuff lips, sides etc... wheels like you are already doing, good suspension coil overs, shocks, sway bars, strut bars, might be able to get some recaros for the inside (Must find a good deal tho) and you are set for a nice looking ride!

Over all try not to waste the money (Meaning don't get rip off, research before you buy so that you can get the best deal for the same item) get value for your money shop wise! GOOD LUCk this guys deserves what you are doing for him

 

Padawan, unfortunately I have already paid for the header and don't really have the time to wait a month for another one, but thanks for the inquiry.

As for my friend, I know that he does want more power, and he wants the car to look clean, no body kits and what not, stock is fine. He told me to find out about the VTEC head setup for him. He also wanted the dents taken out and the bumper fixed, and unfortunately that is going to cost him a rather large chunk of change. Right now I have already invested about $3,300 in the car, which includes all parts I have purchased and the work the body shop is performing. I am not sure how much more money he will be willing to spend, so as far as more power upgrades goes, I am just going to let him take care of it when he comes home. At least he is off to a good start in my opinion, I got the best deals that I could possibly find on all of the parts.

As far as exactly what he wants, I'll get that from him when he gets home. I am just doing exactly what he asked me to for now.